Lauderdale Alters Hiring Goals Program Aims To Put More Minorities, Women In City Jobs

January 16, 1989|By BOB LaMENDOLA, Staff Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The city, long under fire for its minority hiring and promotion practices, will initiate a new affirmative action effort stressing gradual progress.

The plan, which begins this month, urges city department heads to hire and promote more minorities and women, even if they have to pass over more- qualified white males.

At the same time, the plan calls for hiring fewer of those workers than officials had planned in their original 1981 program, which they now call unrealistic.

If managers do not meet the new goals, they will have to explain why to City Manager Connie Hoffmann.

``It`s putting feet to the fire, but it`s more of a candle,`` said John Panoch, city personnel director.

The new program has been in the works for more than two years, since officials scrapped the 1981 plan they fell far short of meeting.

Fort Lauderdale`s minority hiring record is similar to other Broward County cities. Of 2,156 employees, 18 percent are minorities and 24 percent are women, according to city figures.

But civil rights groups and unions have criticized the city for years because 90 percent of 251 top managers and professionals are white males. That percentage has not changed in the 1980s.

``We have not made the progress we hoped to. That`s why we hired an affirmative action officer to devise a plan that was realistic,`` Hoffmann said.

The new plan addresses all city jobs but targets supervisory posts, said affirmative action specialist Deborah Rice-Lamar, who was hired last summer. The plan also puts more emphasis on hiring Hispanics, who now make up 2 percent of city workers.

The city`s critics say they are optimistic that officials are making a good- faith effort to improve.

``This will be very good,`` said Mathes Guice, a minority hiring leader for the Fort Lauderdale Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. ``The city is very deficient in a lot of departments.``

``In the past, they have not done well,`` said City Commissioner Carlton Moore, who is a former NAACP president. ``There are now going to be some positive gains.``

City officials contend that the 1981 hiring goals were unreachable because they were based solely on the percentage of minorities and women in Broward`s population.

The new goals were lowered to take into account that few minorities and women are trained and available for technical and upper-level jobs, Rice-Lamar said.

Under the plan, department heads are urged to fill a certain percentage of job openings with women and minorities. To do so, they sometimes will have to pass over white males who score higher on civil service tests. Rice-Lamar said some managers may resist.

Officials concede that the plan has weaknesses, the largest being that it will not help women and minorities get schooling, training and experience needed for senior posts. The city will redouble its efforts to recruit and train qualified candidates, Rice-Lamar said.

The proposal must pass muster with police and general employee unions during contract talks this year. One union leader said she was initially impressed but is unsure if the city can make it work.

``It will address a lot of problems,`` said Kathy Malie, president of Local 532 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. ``But we need a commitment to follow through on something.``

NAACP leaders, who have eagerly awaited the plan, hope to fashion its best features into a model they will ask other Broward cities to adopt, Guice said.